At 2:00 I met Pat outside the Product Development Center. A few minutes later the head of the Benson Ford Research Center walks in with the curator if the transportation collection of The Henry Ford, a bit of a surprise. We were escorted through the winding hallways and into the Lincoln Design Center lobby where we had to relinquish our cell phones and cameras and sign some kind of security document.

Pat had offered to bring a collection of chrome goodies, but really hit a home run with half a grill and an instrument cluster. What really had them salivating was the dealer book. They were incredibly impressed. What blew them away is that the sample book credits John Rhinehart for the car's design.

The X-1500 book was very well received. It was incredibly well-preserved. The pictures were a bit curled, but looked brand new. There were far more renderings than I had remembered, and there were some line drawings I don't remember at all.







Apparently some had not read the presentation so I simply use the pictures as a guideline and ad-libbed the rest. The time flew by. I did a segue to into the Mark II Forum and turned things over to Pat for a few minutes. I asked if there were any questions and the first one was about the top. Reliable was at the dock waiting to pick the car up so I offered to put the top up. At that point the meeting broke into pretty much what happens at a Concours, everyone has questions. I was in my glory.

As the meeting was breaking up a man came in and introduced himself and asks for a few minutes with the two of us. Turns out the he's up there in Ford and wanted some guidance on buying a Mark II. The Lincoln design chief also expressed an interest in acquiring a finished Mark II. It seems we've piqued some interest in their history after all.

Pat now knows the head of the Transportation Collection and the Benson Ford Research Center. This will likely make him far busier as tomorrow I will introduce him to the Mark II Production Orders which covers the 300 cars that the Invoices are missing.

Thanks a ton to Pat for driving up here at the last minute and making my dog and pony show a hit. Thanks to Dina Mein for making the X-1500 book available.

Thanks to Lincoln for the free winter storage. Thanks to my wife for being understanding when they said that she couldn't join me.